Taking inspiration from sources as diverse as Monty Python, Dutch sculptures, Argentinean-American literature, Swiss art and British pub names, pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and guitarist Mary Halvorson have created an utterly distinctive soundworld. Bone Bells is their third album together since 2017’s debut, Crop Circles, and is a collection of eight compositions (four by each musician) that are full of character, contrasts, deftly executed tonal shifts and compelling patterns.

Halvorson’s opening title track blends melancholic tunefulness with discordant playfulness and sets a beautifully plotted guitar improvisation against bright, spiky piano arpeggios. Its successor, Courvoisier’s ‘Esmeralda’, combines robust pianism and elegantly sighing guitar notes with sparse investigation of the piano’s inner workings and mesmerising melodicism. The duo’s understanding is uncanny and has been forged over much rehearsal and live performing to the degree that neither player takes sole credit for how a piece develops. Courvoisier initiated ‘Nags Head Valse’, a darker-than-dark waltz that makes you wonder what on earth they encountered in that pub, but it’s a genuine collaboration that suggests a conversation between the two women, vividly remembering a shared experience.

Elsewhere, ‘Silly Walk’ is brilliantly fidgety, with superbly synchronised piano and guitar, and ‘Float Queens’ hectic, intricate melody triggers inquiring soloing from Halvorson and atmospheric piano progressions from Courvoisier. Both musicians have projects away from the duo (Courvoisier plays classical piano concerts and with her sextet Chimaera, Halvorson with her own six-piece Amaryllis) and their work in these will reward exploration. There’s a special magic in their music as a duo that has the power to call the listener back for more, whether it’s with the quicksilver phrasing of ‘Folded Secret’ or with the stark and mysterious quality of final track, ‘Cristellina e Lontano’.

Bone Bells is released by Pyroclastic Records on Friday 14 March; main picture: Véronique Hoegger.